Archive for February 7th, 2013

Well, that about does it for any faint hope of a miracle playoff berth no? Wednesday was the classic four-point game (hockey term, but it fits here) a chance for the Raptors to make up a large chunk of ground on the 8th-place Celtics. Instead, there was another collapse in a season filled with them. This group constantly finds ways to blow leads. They do it every possible way. The group does not know what to do in “winning time” and it’s a major problem. How do you solve the problem? I don’t get paid enough to make that call.

Some thoughts on the game:

- Don’t think the Raptors came out hard enough, and neither did Dwane Casey. Boston’s rolling and Toronto needed to come out with considerable intensity. The Raptors really only brought the intensity required in the third quarter, and to nobody’s surprise, that was when the team looked best and appeared to take control of the game.

- Andrea Bargnani looked better than anybody expected in his return to the lineup. The key was he played hard. He tried defensively and used his length to bother the Celtics. He needs to keep this up so Toronto can either find him a new home, or make him a dangerous sixth man.

- Coaches need to win to keep their jobs. Casey knows this, but he also knows he needs to develop Jonas Valanciunas and Terrence Ross. This current group isn’t going anywhere, so it’s time to severely cut into the minutes Aaron Gray and Alan Anderson get because the rookies are key building blocks. They need game action. It’s OK not to go to them in crunch time, but they need to get considerable run in the second quarter of games. Anderson is in for his defence, but Ross needs to show what he can do as well. Casey has helped develop DeMar DeRozan, Amir Johnson and Ed Davis. Now he needs to do the same with Ross and Valanciunas. They need to be thrown into the fire.